Dreams and Images
by lilidelafield
Summary: Illya wakes up screaming . . .


Napoleon awoke with a jump as Illya gave a blood-curdling scream. He sat up, his heart pounding.

"Illya, are you all right? What was it, another dream?"

Illya was sitting sideways on his bed, rubbing his face with both hands.

"It was nothing. Go back to sleep Napoleon."

Napoleon shook his head.

"From the way my heart is pounding, it'll be an hour before I can get to relax again...and I was in the middle of such a delicious dream too..."

" _Your_ heart is pounding?" Illya gave a short humourless laugh. "Funny thing is Napoleon, I...I don't know where that dream came from..."

Napoleon got up and poured out the last of last night's brandy for the two of them.

"Here, you look like you could use this and I know I could. You have to tell me about this dream of yours, Illya, now I'm wide awake."

"I am curled up at home on my sofa with my cat. She's happy and contented and purring away, and I hear a buzzing sound. And the cat leaps from my lap onto the coffee table. I watch as the buzzing turns out to be a large black fly. The cat watches the fly until it buzzes near her face, and then she opens her mouth, reveals a set of alligator teeth, and flicks her tongue out like a lizard and swallows the fly in one gulp."

"Weird!" Napoleon replied, wrinkling his nose. "So your cat is a three-way cross between a cat, an alligator and a lizard, eh? I always suspected something of the kind the way she always seems to sink those teeth of hers into my fingers whenever we meet."

Illya rolled his eyes,

"Idiot! She's an ordinary cat, Napoleon. The dream isn't real. How could it be?"

He crossed the room and stood staring out of the window. Napoleon drained his glass and then joined him.

"We have nightmares fairly often." He commented, "Most section 2's do. It's a natural result of the things we face every day as part of our job. But I must say I don't recall meeting any kind of weird cat creature like the one in your dream. If it had been a dog now, I could have understood it, considering how you dislike dogs."

Illya shook his head and closed the curtain, sitting down once again on the end of his bed.

"That's the point Napoleon. I don't dislike dogs really...I can see all their good points from a purely academic point of view...I am simply afraid of them. The larger ones at least. I am not however and have never been afraid of cats! So why a dream like _that?_ "

"Watching any late night horror films lately?"

"I am not into that kind of thing Napoleon and you know it. Neither that or this All Hallows celebration you all go in for."

Napoleon chuckled.

"You mean Hallowe'en? I know you don't go in for all of that, but maybe some of the hype or images have come back to you in your dreams"

"Nightmares about a deadly pussycat? If you decide to dress up as a white pussycat for this hallows celebration of yours, Napoleon, I might take that idea of yours seriously."

" _Hallowe'en_ , and no, that wasn't at the top of my list of costume ideas. Have you ever been attacked by a cat?"

"Not to my knowledge; but then I haven't been specifically attacked by a dog, either."

"Well, maybe you could have a word with one of the psyche doctors when we get back to New York? He might have some ideas of where this nightmare cat of yours could have come from."

"Or maybe I should do what I always do and forget the whole thing and go back to sleep?"

Napoleon raised his eyebrows.

"And what if this dream recurs?"

"What if it does? Sorry to tell Napoleon, my bad dreams usually do recur. What _can_ I do except roll over and go back to sleep?"

Illya got back into bed and lay down again. Napoleon shook his head.

"The thought of it recurring again and again doesn't worry you?" He closed his eyes and shuddered visibly. "The last nightmare I had, Illya, scared me witless, and I was shaking for hours."

Illya sat up again.

"Yes, sorry about that my friend. That was your dream about me drowning wasn't it? I have had dreams like that, and they _do_ bother me, because they could one day happen for real. Dreams like this one about the cat are a little disturbing, or annoying would be a better word because they disturb my sleep, but not really frightening like that dream of yours."

"Because it could never come true?"

"Exactly. I would sooner dream about an alligator-cat than about you dying, my friend."

Napoleon smiled and switched off the lamp.

"So would I, my friend. So would I."


End file.
